Google: organize the worlds information
SoftBank: happiness for everyone through information
Because information stops loneliness.
It sounds cheesily Japanese. But read the 133 page deck written by one of the worlds most successful entrepreneurs here:
http://cdn.softbank.jp/en/corp/set/data/irinfo/presentations/vod/2010/pdf/press_20100625_01.pdf
Notable:
– SoftBank has a 300 year plan
– they want to make a robot to love you
– they think natural disasters could be made less horrible by information flows
– virtual reality is going to be a big deal
– Son the founder is Korean by background though born and raised in very racist Japan
– they run the company as a network of minority shares. A venture fund or group. Like Berkshire or a VC or Naspers or something. Not like Amazon. Maybe Google is a bit like this
Sidebar: I have been surprised lately at the evident embrace of futurism by corporate goliaths like a Google and perhaps even Facebook. Whole swaths of strategy are dictated by the predictions in Kurzweil etc. It isn’t so surprising if you think of Bill Gates “The Road Ahead” back in the 90s or even the AT&T exhibit at the Worlds Fair in New York in 1964 when they showed off the first videophone or Xerox PARC. The past instances of course are laughable failures of vision, yet the present instances are all impressive and visionary. Hmm.